Men with high testosterone attracted to women with feminine faces

Men with high levels of testosterone are attracted to women with highly feminine faces, a new study suggests.

Natalie Portman fits the billPhoto: Getty Images

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent

5:23PM BST 15 Sep 2008

Eva Longoria, who plays Gabrielle in Desperate Housewives, Evangeline Lilly from the TV drama Lost and the film star Natalie Portman are among those who fit the bill.

At the same time women with raised levels of the hormone tend to be drawn to highly masculine men like the James Bond actor Daniel Craig, say the researchers.

The study, the first into the role testosterone plays in the attraction of the sexes, involved a series of tests involving 70 women and 30 men in which testosterone levels were measured on each occasion.

Levels of the hormone fluctuate in individuals on a daily basis and the researchers found that attitudes changed depending on the testosterone level.

The results also suggested an overall preference for women and men with more feminine features, which suggests that the "tall, dark and handsome" stereotype, emphasising macho features, is not after all the most attractive male form.

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The researchers said people were not always attracted to the same type of face, but would find different people attractive depending on their testosterone levels.

A woman might therefore find herself drawn to the masculine Russell Crowe one day, and the more delicately featured Orlando Bloom the next day.

Dr Ben Jones, a psychology lecturer at Aberdeen University where the study was conducted, said the results showed that someone's "type" could change quite significantly over time.

However, high testosterone levels consistently prompted people to choose "high quality" mates.

He added: "When men's testosterone levels were high, they were more attracted to feminine women. When women's testosterone levels were high, they were more attracted to masculine men.

"Since masculine men and feminine women are thought to produce the healthiest children and sex drive is higher when testosterone levels are also high, these findings suggest that men and women in hormonal states where their interest in sex is highest show stronger attraction to high-quality, or healthy, mates."

Participants were asked to complete face preference tests over a period of a month in which they were shown pairs of masculine and feminine faces. They were asked to choose which version of the same face was most attractive.

In each session, volunteers also provided a saliva sample which was used to measure testosterone levels.

Levels tend to be higher in women at ovulation during the menstrual cycle and therefore they were drawn to masculine men at that point.

Participants were shown photos of the opposite sex and the same sex, which revealed that high testosterone levels made no difference to men in terms of the males they rated as attractive.

However, women also found masculine women attractive when they had high levels of the hormone. Although Dr Jones said this may also have been because they felt "more negative" about attractive women at the time.

The researchers are now planning to study the role of voices and odour in sexual attraction. The facial attractiveness test used by the psychologists is available online at www.faceresearch.org